TY Leadership Workshop

Over the course of a week, each TY base class participated in a workshop taught by Kevin Spain which delt with learning who you are and your future.

From the week of the 10th till the week of the 17th of October, the TY’s participated in a leadership programme. In this programme the TY’s were taught to better understand themselves and how that would apply to their lives moving forward, more specifically in jobs. The workshop aimed to give them the tools they need to figure out who they want to be rather than what they wanted to be. Also teaching the TY’s the importance of knowing themselves as “If you don't find yourself interesting you're in trouble.” with the importance of moratorium, stopping to pay attention and learning about yourself.

The first activity the TY’s participated in was they were broken into groups to discuss a contract. This contract was promises they would keep in regards to the workshop. The groups were tasked with picking one item on the contract and removing it and if they wanted they could add another. The contract included; Trust, confidentiality, fun, honesty, respect and meeting-halfway.

Following this the TY’s were shown a video which discussed different philosophies to do with the world and our lives in it, followed by a discussion of the fact that we as humans only present 10% of our true selves to strangers. With this the TY’s were given a worksheet where they were given the question “what's going on in your life” the students picked 6 aspects of their lives that made them who they are and rated out of ten how happy they are with this and thus was challenged to pick one thing they will do to improve how they felt about one of the six aspects.

The next task the TY’s where given was a personality test, with this the TY’s rated descriptor and how relevant they were to themselves and from there were told what was mainly their personality type was.

The TY’s were then brought outside to have a break from the more structured part of the workshop, to play a game. This was a game in which they paired off and said 1, 2,3 repeatedly with each person saying every other number. This seemed difficult and became more so when the numbers were substituted with sounds and movements. But the TY’s seemed to enjoy the challenge with many smiling faces to be found.

After this the TY’s were brought back inside to continue the more formal workshop. From this the TY’s were asked about their morals and what attributes they found important and wished to have, listing their top 5 in order.then they listed the strengths they already had and how they displayed them for example if they were friendly and felt comfortable talking to others in that way.

Following this the students were taught about the importance of relationships, how they can affect you and aid you in many ways.they were show this in an example video were a lady who survived the holocost told her story of how her mother gave a pregnant woman in the concentration camp her piece of chocolate in hopes of giving her strength and how the daughter born many years later went and found the woman and gave her a piece of chocolate as a thank you all those years later.

Next the TY’s were brought outside once again , though this time to do team working skills in the form of two games. In the first game the students were given a bamboo stick and a beanbag, in this the students had to throw the bean bag and pass the bamboo stick to the next person while grabbing the person next to them’s bean bag and bamboo stick. The second game was physical chinese whispers where one person was told an action which they had to mime to the next person and so on till the last person, this made a few interesting interpretations and the TY’s almost never got the action right in the end.

The TY’s were then brought back for the final time. They were asked what they wanted to get out of their future careers be it money, justice etc. what was an important factor they wanted in their future job. Following this the TY’s were given a career quiz where they were askes;1. name three jobs you would like to do. 2.if money wasn't an object what job would you do? 3. If you had a year to live what job would you do? 4. If you were guaranteed success what job would you do? The TY’s were taught about “Ikigai” and how they should consider four factors before doing a job; does the world need it?Can you get paid for it? Are you good at it? Do you love it?

After this the TY’s were taught about how we hold on to fear and stop ourselves from accomplishing what we want to as a result. From this the TY’s were challenged in their groups to come up with an idea of something they will do as a class to help another group of people, which they then voted on and will do lead by three or four chosen leaders.

The final thing the TY’s were taught about was Positive psychology. This taught the TY’s the importance of doing things that made you happy constantly.this also taught the TY’s that something won't always make you happy or make you sad with the examples of studies that showed that lotto winners happiness to return back to normal after six months and that paraplegics will tend to go back to there happiness level prior to the accident six months after. This lesson continued as the TY’s were taught that they only had control over 40% of their own happiness as 20% was due to living substances and the other 40 % was genetic. This lesson ended with the TY’s being taught a useful way to feel better, this was by writing an important person to you a letter and reading it to them.

To conclude this was an enjoyable workshop for many, with many laughs and smiles. All the TY’s were taught the importance of knowing and taking care of themselves and gained useful skills for moving forward. It helped better prepare them for a busy future, especially with big decisions looming over the horizon as they grow into young adults. It was clear Kevin was extremely good at engaging with the TY's, gaining their trust and respect over the course of the day as he showed he had their best interests at heart, wanting to help them along their journey into adulthood. We thank him greatly for being so fantastic!